Beer: Ratings & Reviews

Very excited to see this in the cooler at Brewery Creek today. Haven't heard a thing about it, but it's one of my favorite styles.

Appearance. Pours a hazy, more like murky, pale khaki-gold with half a finger of frothy white head that disappears fast. Honestly, not the most attractive colour, but hey, that's the least important part of any beer.

Smell. Funky yeast esters, some grainy wheat. Not getting any of the sour lemon scents that are typical of the style. There's also a touch of something funny there that's reminiscent of molasses.

Taste. OKay, better here. Lemony sourness, a little sweet wheat, but again that little bit of interesting that I picked up in the nose. Almost like there's just the smallest bit of molasses in there.

Mouthfeel. Light body, medium spritzy carbonation.

Overall. So close. The sourness and body are about right but there is something in the flavour that just isn't quite right. It's not there in a major way so it doesn't ruin the beer, it's just not quite amazing.

The fine folks at Granville Island Brewing sent me their Pucker Meister Berliner Weisse, and at 2.8% ABV, with an IBU of 8, I was sceptical to say the least. I have had sour beers before, but none were even close to the lightness in alcohol content or bitterness. What was it like? Let's see.

If you Google the label you can see that the label design on the bottle has a similar graphical theme to the Thirsty Farmer Saison label. I quite like it, but I'm here to drink it, not to fancy the look of the label.

The brew poured a hazy, orange-yellow, with a generous enough carbonation to it. It's got a little bit of white head, maybe 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch worth. It smells great too, as there's almost no strength to the alcohol content to the beer, it allows the other ingredients to come across in the aroma. I smell citrus zest, overall citrus-y smells and a hint of something that reminds me of a yogurt-like drink. It must be the lacotbacillus bacteria content (the same stuff that's in yogurt).

On taste, it was much, much lighter than I expected. I guess I've never had a beer with an IBU of 8 before, and there was virtually no bitterness. The citrus-y taste kind of died down after a little bit, and I was left with an after taste of the slight tartness. I've had sour beers before, and they focus on that puckering gross taste, where this one is light and fresh.

This is most definitely my choice for introducing someone to the sour beer family, as it's light in ABV, a very weak and almost non-existent bitterness palette, and it's got that light tartness to it, which overall flows well together and makes for an easy-drinking beer.

Overall, this was something that I've never tried, and unless it was asked upon me to drink this, I probably wouldn't have risked it. But you know what? Sometimes going out of your comfort zone to try a beer pays off in a good way. This is one of those times.